Heading west from Temecula, California, you climb and climb up a beautiful mountain road. At the summit there is a viewpoint. What you see from the viewpoint is the Coachella Valley, spread out before you. In the mountains you see in the distance lies Joshua Tree National Park, a desert park featuring scenery, rock climbing, hiking, wildlife, and cactus. And of course Joshua Trees.

I'm not going to attempt to name all the cactus for you. But I will say there are lots of them, and lots of different kinds. I think this is a Teddy Bear Cholla (pronounced "hoya").

I also saw two coyote, but they saw me first so I didn't get photos.

The Joshua tree isn't a tree, of course; it's a yucca.

Keyes View looks back onto the first photo of this series: Coachella Valley lies below, and the mountains in the background are the ones I was in in the first photo. (That may not be precisely true; there are lots of mountain ranges and valleys around here, but it is symbolically true at least.)

Some fellow tourists wanted their picture taken. They looked like a nice couple, maybe on their honeymoon. so I was glad to do it, and let them take one of me as well.

Acadia | Arches | Appomattox Court House | Black Canyon of the Gunnison | Bryce Canyon | Canyonlands | Capitol Reef | Crater Lake | Flaming Gorge | Fort Vancouver | Gettysburg National Military Park | Glacier | Grand Canyon | Grand Staircase Escalante | Grand Teton | Great Basin | Jefferson National Expansion | Joshua Tree | Lassen Volcanic | Mesa Verde | Mount Rainier | Mount Rushmore | North Cascades | Olympic | Redwood | Rocky Mountain | San Rafael Swell | Sequoia and Kings Canyon | Yellowstone | Yosemite | Zion | National Parks Index | Don's Web Site Home Page |